Cassie testimony against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ends after she spent days describing abuse and texts

Cassie testimony against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ends after she spent days describing abuse and texts
Cassie, the prosecution’s star witness, testified she was ashamed and loathed taking part in “hundreds” of the freak-offs. (Reuters)
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Updated 17 May 2025
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Cassie testimony against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ends after she spent days describing abuse and texts

Cassie testimony against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ends after she spent days describing abuse and texts
  • Cassie, who is pregnant with her third child and nearing her due date, spent four days on the witness stand

NEW YORK: R&B singer Cassie delved further into text messages with former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs during her cross-examination Friday in the music mogul’s sex trafficking trial, telling him “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child” after he beat her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
However, as they tried to recover from the episode, she and Combs were expressing love for each other just days later, with Cassie writing in one text: “We need a different vibe from Friday.”
She and one of Combs’ defense attorneys read the couple’s messages aloud during two days of cross-examination in a Manhattan courtroom, which ended Friday afternoon. The defense also tried to discredit Cassie’s testimony that Combs raped her in 2018 after she ended their nearly 11-year relationship.
In the “rag doll” text, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, told Combs he was out of control from drugs and alcohol that day. After hotel security video of the assault was released last year, Combs apologized and said he was “disgusted” by his actions.
Federal prosecutors allege Combs exploited his status as a music executive and businessman to force women into drug-fueled encounters with male sex workers, called “freak-offs,” that he watched and directed. Cassie is one of several accusers expected to testify.
However, Combs’ lawyers want the jury to see Cassie as a willing and eager participant in his sexual lifestyle. He has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
His defense says that, although he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. And Combs insists all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.
Cassie, the prosecution’s star witness, testified she was ashamed and loathed taking part in “hundreds” of the freak-offs, which could go on for days. But she said she felt compelled because Combs threatened her with violence, and was physically abusive “a lot” during the encounters. He also threatened to publicly release sex videos of her if she made him angry, she said.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Cassie cross-examination ends Friday
Cassie, who is pregnant with her third child and nearing her due date, spent four days on the witness stand.
When Judge Arun Subramanian told her she could leave, saying, “You’ve been here a long time,” Cassie glanced once toward the jury but never looked in Combs’ direction as she walked out of the courtroom for the final time.
Throughout Friday’s testimony, Combs kept lowering his head to write a steady stream of messages on small sheets of paper that he passed to his defense attorneys.
Singer Dawn Richard takes the stand
Dawn Richard is a singer who appeared on Combs’ reality show “Making the Band,” which launched her group act Danity Kane. She testified Friday that she witnessed Combs physically attack Cassie on multiple occasions.
Richard said she and another woman saw Combs hit Cassie “on the head and beat her on the ground” while at his home studio in 2009. He brought them back the next day, giving Richard flowers and putting a spin on what happened.
“He said that what we saw was passion and what lovers in relationships do,” she testified. But he also locked them in his recording studio and allegedly threatened them to stay silent or else, she said.
Richard sued Combs last year, accusing him of physical abuse, groping and psychological abuse during the years they worked together.
Cassie’s texts to Diddy are a key part of cross-examination
During cross-examination on Thursday and Friday, the defense had Cassie read texts and emails that showed her apparent willingness to participate in the sexual encounters Combs orchestrated.
In a 2012 exchange, Combs told Cassie he wanted to “FO one last time tonight,” using initials for freak-off. Cassie replied, “What?” Combs said, “You can’t read?” Then Cassie replied, “I don’t want to freak off for the last time. I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives.”
Estevao ended her questioning there, but prosecutor Emily Johnson had Cassie read more messages for context.
“I want to see you, but I’m emotional right now,” Cassie wrote. “I don’t want to do one last time. I’d rather not do it at all.”
Cassie testified she was initially open to the encounters because she wanted to make him happy and spend time with him, but grew weary as the years went on.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
Cassie filed a lawsuit in 2023 accusing Combs of physical and sexual abuse, but they settled within hours for $20 million — an amount she disclosed publicly for the first time this week. Dozens of other women have since made similar legal claims.
Cassie’s testimony ended with another bombshell disclosure: She said she recently reached an estimated $10 million settlement with Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was assaulted. She didn’t disclose the nature of her claim.
Scrutiny on the 2018 rape claim against Combs
Estevao also raised questions on Friday about Cassie’s rape claim against Combs, noting that Cassie gave differing descriptions of his demeanor and the timing of the alleged assault in interviews with investigators and in her trial testimony.
Cassie contends the rape happened at her Los Angeles home after she and Combs had dinner in Malibu, California, to discuss their breakup, either in August or September 2018.
While Cassie testified this week that Combs was “really nice” and “playful” at the dinner, Estevao pointed out that Cassie told investigators in 2023 that Combs had been “acting very strangely” that night. Cassie clarified, “Nice, but strangely.”
Cassie also testified this week that Combs, during the dinner, was trying to get her to go to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, but previously told investigators that the dinner and rape happened after Combs returned from Burning Man.
Cassie acknowledged she stayed in touch with Combs and had consensual sex with him a few weeks after she says he raped her. She also exchanged warm messages with Combs after they broke up, even after she marrying Alex Fine in 2019.
Cassie’s parting words
Cassie released a statement saying she hoped her testimony helps others “heal from the abuse and fear.”
“For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember,” she said. “And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”


‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards

‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards
Updated 26 May 2025
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‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards

‘Solo Leveling’ dominates Crunchyroll Anime Awards

DUBAI: “Solo Leveling” emerged as the top winner at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, clinching anime of the year, best action, best new series, and several accolades for music and performance. The global fan-favorite led the night at the ceremony held at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo.

The annual celebration of anime recognized excellence across 28 categories, powered by a record-breaking 51 million fan votes worldwide.

Among the night’s other standout winners was “Look Back,” the poignant adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga, which took home the film of the year award. “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” extended its celebrated legacy by winning best continuing series and best animation.

The supernatural comedy “Dan Da Dan” also made waves, picking up awards for best opening sequence, best anime song, and best character design.

In a highlight of the evening, “Attack on Titan” received Crunchyroll’s first-ever Global Impact Award, a new honor recognizing a franchise’s lasting cultural influence. The award follows the 2024 conclusion of the acclaimed saga with “Attack on Titan: The Last Attack.” Director Yuichiro Hayashi accepted the prize on behalf of studio MAPPA and the show’s creators.

“Fans form deep emotional connections to anime. These are not just series, films or songs, but rather works of art that help define the identity of anime fans,” said Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll. “With an incredible 51 million votes this year, the 2025 Anime Awards are celebrating the creators in Japan who have captured the hearts of fans and are powering anime’s prominence in global pop culture.”


Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
Updated 24 May 2025
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Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
  • Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023
  • Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts

ROVANIEMI, Finland: A fighter jet roaring through the grey sky breaks the tranquility of a boreal forest in northern Finland, one more sign of a growing military presence that is challenging the ability of reindeer herders to exercise their livelihood.
“Military activity has increased massively here since Finland joined NATO,” reindeer herder Kyosti Uutela said on a tour in Rovajarvi, the largest artillery practice range in western Europe, on a day when no ground exercises were underway.
Located 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border, Rovajarvi covers an area of 1,070 square kilometers on land that also makes up part of the reindeer husbandry district that Uutela heads.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in 2024, a defense cooperation agreement between the United States and Finland came into force.
“Training activities and exercises have increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine” because of the worsened security situation, the Finnish Defense Forces told AFP in a statement.
“This is naturally also reflected in Rovajarvi,” it said, saying the firing range provided unique training possibilities for international troops thanks to its size, terrain and seasonal changes.
Last year, Finland participated in 103 military exercises at home and abroad, up from 89 in 2023.
Ascending a small hill where the forest has been clear-cut and trenches dug for training purposes, Uutela said the spot “had been lost” as a grazing ground.
“The use of heavy army tanks and the presence of thousands of soldiers in the forest destroy the lichen pastures,” Uutela said, referring to the reindeer’s main source of food.
“Reindeer will not be able to live here anymore,” he said.
Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts that cover 36 percent of the country’s total area.
A part of them belong to the indigenous Sami population that lives in Sapmi, which straddles northern regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The non-Sami people such as Uutela who also practice reindeer husbandry include herders living near the Rovajarvi range, outside the Sapmi homeland.
Full-time herders sell reindeer meat, pelts and handicrafts as their main source of income, and husbandry has been an integral part of the indigenous Sami culture for generations.
Riikka Poropudas, another herder in Rovajarvi, said the military presence in the area had increased “radically” since Finland’s NATO accession, forcing herders to feed their reindeer in fenced areas more often than before.
Finland’s Defense Forces said the needs of reindeer husbandry were “taken into account in the planning of exercises, for example in terms of the times and locations,” adding that they were in daily contact with Rovajarvi herders.
But Poropudas worries that a large live-fire and combat exercise involving around 6,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden and Britain this month would disturb her reindeer.
The calving season is at its busiest in mid-May.
“The activities stress both female reindeer and newborn calves, and drive them away from their natural pastures,” she said.
Tuomas Aslak Juuso, acting president of the Sami parliament in Finland, said climate change and land use changes – including the militarization of the Arctic – posed special challenges for the roughly 1,200 Sami reindeer herders in Finland.
“Our way of reindeer husbandry depends fully on the herding model and the reindeer being able to graze freely on natural pasture lands,” he said.
But the effects of climate change on winter conditions already mean that herders increasingly have to provide their reindeer with supplementary feed “in order to avoid mass deaths.”
A large international military exercise conducted in Finnish Sapmi in 2023 had been “quite a negative experience for the Sami people,” Juuso said.
“The local reindeer herders had not been informed beforehand, grazing conditions for that spring were damaged and tractors damaged the lichen cover, which may never grow back,” he said.
“When these things are planned, there should be early consultation with the Sami and responsibility for damage and harm.”


Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich

Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich
Updated 23 May 2025
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Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich

Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich

MOSCOW: Fans paid tribute on Friday in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre to late ballet supremo Yuri Grigorovich, who died this week at the age of 98.
Born in the Soviet city of Leningrad to a ballet family, Grigorovich’s career — as a dancer and choreographer — spanned 80 years.
For much of it, he was the artistic powerhouse behind the Bolshoi, which he was said to have run with an iron fist.
Grigorovich made his name staging classics such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Stone Flower.
The latter was his most famous piece, based on folk tales from the Urals accompanied by composer Sergei Prokofiev’s music.
He then led the Bolshoi between 1964 and 1995.
“This man was a gift from God,” Agnessa Balieva, 78, a former star dancer at the Bolshoi, told AFP when she came to pay tribute to Grigorovich.
The choreographer’s coffin was covered in garlands in front of the stage of the Bolshoi, alongside a large black and white portrait of him, while music from his ballets was played.
“He was a great man, a genius, a legend,” said Ilia Krivov, a 42-year-old former Bolshoi dancer.
He said Grigorovich had elevated male ballet to “an unprecedented level.”
“Grigorovich was the soul of the Bolshoi,” said Svetlana Staris, a journalist and poet, hailing a figure who “revolutionized ballet.”


‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation

‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation
Updated 23 May 2025
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‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation

‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation
  • Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, is no stranger to the school
  • Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960 with home economics as his major

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland: Kermit the Frog knows it’s not easy being green — or graduating from college and entering the real world, especially during a time of economic uncertainty and political turmoil.
Members of the University of Maryland’s class of 2025 received their diplomas Thursday evening with sage advice from the amphibious Muppet ringing in their ears.
“As you prepare to take this big leap into real life, here’s a little advice — if you’re willing to listen to a frog,” the beloved Muppet said. “Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together.”

 

The university announced in March that Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, would be this year’s commencement speaker. He is also no stranger to the school.
Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960. A home economics major, he fashioned the original frog puppet from one of his mother’s coats and a Ping-Pong ball cut in half, according to a statement from the university. Henson died in 1990.
A bronze statue of Henson and Kermit sitting on a bench is a well-known feature of the College Park campus.
In a video announcing the speaker pick, Kermit is described as an environmental advocate, a bestselling author, an international superstar and a champion of creativity, kindness and believing in the impossible.
His speaker bio calls him “a star of stage, screen and swamp” whose simple mission is to “sing and dance and make people happy.”
“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” university President Darryll J. Pines said in a statement.


In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species

In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species
Updated 23 May 2025
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In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species

In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species
  • Some clips show birds mimicking other animals like dogs, people and other bird species

COBH, Ireland: On a mission to record all of Ireland’s bird species, many of which are dying out, Irishman Sean Ronayne calls his unique audio archive a tool to both raise alarm and bring hope.
According to conservation bodies, some 63 percent of Ireland’s birds are currently either red or amber-listed, meaning they are at severe or moderate extinction risk.
“Birds are in trouble in Ireland like they are across the world, the loss of wildlife — sonically and physically — is devastating to me,” said the 37-year-old.
“But I focus on hope and beauty, which is essential,” the ornithologist told AFP at his home near Cobh (pronounced “Cove“) in County Cork.
More than four years into his recording project he has sampled 201 different Irish bird species, stocking over 12,000 audio clips from around the country, Ronayne told AFP.
Just two remain to be documented: the great skua, and red-breasted merganser.
“If people realize just how spectacular wildlife is, there’s no way they would let it disappear, attitudes would change,” Ronayne said.
Ireland may be famed for its green fields, but Ronayne paints a bleak picture — “realistic” he says — of a degraded landscape and a bird population decimated by vanishing habitats.
Most of Ireland comprises intensively farmed fields bounded by trimmed hedgerows, drained and mined peatlands, overgrazed uplands, and minimal native woodland, he told AFP.
Non-native conifer plantations — approximately nine percent of Ireland’s 11 percent forest cover — are also a biodiversity villain, described by Ronayne as “a species-poor industrial cash-crop.”
“I try to show people the beauty of what we’re erasing and what we must stand up and fight for,” said the wildlife expert.
Last year he published an award-winning book, released two albums, and made an acclaimed documentary film. His talk tour is currently selling out venues around Ireland.
“Wildlife sound is such a great engaging tool to connect people to nature itself and get them acquainted with everything that’s on their doorstep,” Ronayne told AFP.
“If you know your neighbor you’re more likely to help them in times of need,” he said.
At the shows Ronayne, who was diagnosed with a form of autism as an adult, presents the story of his life and how nature is woven through it.
He also plays audio of warbles, tweets, trills, screeches and chirps, and mystery sounds, inviting the audience to guess the origin.
Some clips show birds mimicking other animals like dogs, people and other bird species.
“Some species in my collection can mimic 30 to 40 other species in their song,” he said.
Laughter is common at his talks, but also tears and grief as listeners learn of Ireland’s endangered birdlife.


Ronayne regularly holds “dawn chorus” walks, bringing small groups into silent forests far from road noise to experience the birdlife waking up.
A gradually building cacophony of sound, the dawn chorus is “a reflection of the health of a given environment,” he told AFP in an old woodland near his home while waiting for sunrise.
“The more sonically diverse it is, the healthier the habitat is,” he said.
After unpacking his audio recorder, parabolic microphone and tripod, he quickly identified the melodies of song thrushes, robins, blackbirds, goldcrests and others as they greeted the day.
“Chiffchaff! Did you hear that?! There’s a grey wagtail!” he exclaimed, head twitching toward each sound in the lifting gloom.
Ronayne also hides recorders for weeks and even months in remote untouched places where birds congregate.
On Ballycotton beach near Cobh, migrating birds swirled overhead before settling on an adjacent lagoon.
Ronayne carefully placed a waterproof recorder — able to run for up two weeks — in grass by the shore.
“They have to fly right over here to there,” he said pointing upwards at their route.
“After I collect it I’ll be able to monitor the birds, capture their calls, and tell environmental stories from the audio,” he said.
Back home, he scrolled on a computer showing thousands of archived sonogram clips — visual representations of sound — of birdsong audio.
Each entry included data on the behavior, calls and protected status of each bird: many either red or amber.
“First we must realize how wonderful nature is, then how fragile it is, and how much we have kicked it down,” Ronayne told AFP.
“When we as a society fall back in love with nature, and respect it as we once did, beautiful things will happen.”